This invention relates to improvements in or relating to the mechanical construction of an electric circuit including a coil or coils in addition to electronic components. More specifically, the invention pertains to how to assemble, both mechanically and electrically, the coil or coils and other components of such an electric circuit into a unitary, compact package.
There are many known electric circuits that are comprised of coils such as inductance coils and those of transformers, along with other components such as transistors, diodes, and capacitors. Conventionally, all such components have been mounted on a planar circuit board, and the coil or coils and some or all of the other components have been plastic encapsulated as required.
An objection to such conventionally packaged electric circuits is that they are mostly not nearly so compact as can be desired. The apparent lack of compactness is due obviously to the direct placement of the coil or coils on the circuit board. Coils are ordinarily far more bulky than the other components such as transistors, capacitors, and resistors. Because of their large surface requirements on the circuit board the coils have necessitated the use of an inconveniently large circuit board, presenting a bar to the miniaturization of packaged electric circuits of the kind in question. Obviously, no further reduction in size is possible unless a completely different packaging scheme, involving coil displacement from the circuit board, is invented.
The manufacture of such electric circuit packages has also been a very troublesome and time-consuming procedure partly because of the complex electric connections that must be made among the various components. Difficulties have been met, for example, in connecting the coil extremities to the conductor pattern on the circuit board, and attaching terminals to the circuit board.